SpringBoot Application Log Files in AWS - amazon-web-services

Question

I have a SpringBoot application that I deployed onto AWS for learning purposes. My application exposes REST API and I am trying to understand how to view the application logs in AWS.
This is how my SpringBoot application's GET API is configured.
#GetMapping
public List<Movie> getMovies() {
logger.info("Reached All GetMapping on the server");
return service.getMovies();
}
I deployed the service onto Elastic BeanStalk. I then went to logs folder in Elastic Beanstalk > Environments > my_application_name > logs. I am seeing a zip to download that contains the log statements:
Dec 23 19:22:18 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:18.471 INFO 4108 --- [ main] i.f.r.restapiaws.RestapiawsApplication : No active profile set, falling back to default profiles: default
Dec 23 19:22:21 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:21.227 INFO 4108 --- [ main] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer : Tomcat initialized with port(s): 5000 (http)
Dec 23 19:22:21 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:21.254 INFO 4108 --- [ main] o.apache.catalina.core.StandardService : Starting service [Tomcat]
Dec 23 19:22:21 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:21.258 INFO 4108 --- [ main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine : Starting Servlet engine: [Apache Tomcat/9.0.55]
Dec 23 19:22:21 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:21.379 INFO 4108 --- [ main] o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost].[/] : Initializing Spring embedded WebApplicationContext
Dec 23 19:22:21 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:21.381 INFO 4108 --- [ main] w.s.c.ServletWebServerApplicationContext : Root WebApplicationContext: initialization completed in 2638 ms
Dec 23 19:22:22 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:22.616 INFO 4108 --- [ main] o.s.b.a.w.s.WelcomePageHandlerMapping : Adding welcome page: class path resource [static/index.html]
Dec 23 19:22:22 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:22.851 INFO 4108 --- [ main] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer : Tomcat started on port(s): 5000 (http) with context path ''
Dec 23 19:22:22 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:22.874 INFO 4108 --- [ main] i.f.r.restapiaws.RestapiawsApplication : Started RestapiawsApplication in 5.999 seconds (JVM running for 8.107)
Dec 23 19:22:34 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:34.919 INFO 4108 --- [nio-5000-exec-1] o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost].[/] : Initializing Spring DispatcherServlet 'dispatcherServlet'
Dec 23 19:22:34 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:34.920 INFO 4108 --- [nio-5000-exec-1] o.s.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet : Initializing Servlet 'dispatcherServlet'
Dec 23 19:22:34 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:22:34.922 INFO 4108 --- [nio-5000-exec-1] o.s.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet : Completed initialization in 2 ms
Dec 23 19:25:06 ip-172-31-42-142 web: 2021-12-23 19:25:06.425 INFO 4108 --- [nio-5000-exec-2] i.f.r.r.controllers.RestAPIController : Reached All GetMapping on the server
Is this how the logs appear in practical AWS implementations?. I was under the impressions that CloudWatch can give this provision by default without having to download the logs as a zip and extract them to do analysis. In a practical implementation with thousands of requests it does not appear accurate that the only option is to download these log files as a zip and then extract them.
I'm new to AWS and so if there is a configuration/connection that I am missing, please suggest.
Thanks,
Pavan.

Answer 1

Elastic Beanstalk does not stream logs to CloudWatch by default, but this can be enabled when we create an application. In order to do this, we have to select Configure More Options and then in the Software section select Edit:
From there we can enable log streaming:
If we already have an application with an environment, we can still enable streaming to CloudWatch by going into Configurations and than Software section: